How to get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate early

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is Microsoft's all-new program that combines its two major Xbox digital services into one; Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold. Many are subscribers of both and have been asking for a single subscription to cover the pair, and Microsoft is going to deliver sometime later in 2019.

However, if you're in the Xbox Insider Program, you may be able to enroll right now and give it a whirl. Here's what you need to know.

Who can get Xbox Live Ultimate right now?

Eventually, anyone will be able to buy a subscription to Xbox Live Ultimate. Right now, however, it's only open to select members of the Xbox Insider Program.

More specifically, it's only currently open to members of the "Alpha" and "Skip Ahead" rings of the Xbox Insider Program. There's a chance Microsoft could expand this as we get closer to launch, but right now if you're not in one of those two rings, you can't get in on the testing of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

How to enroll in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

If you meet the right criteria, here's how to enroll in the testing of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

On your Xbox One, open the Xbox Insider Hub application.

In the menu, select Insider content.

Choose the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate program.

Press Join.

How much does Xbox Game Pass Ultimate cost?

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will cost $15 a month when it launches, but during the testing phase, this is greatly reduced to just $1/£1 per month. Better still, if you already have prepaid Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass applied to your account, Microsoft will honor this with free Game Pass Ultimate membership.

From the FAQ:

"As an Insider benefit, when you join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to give feedback, we will apply any prepaid time you have on Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass or both toward Xbox Game Pass Ultimate up to a maximum of 36-months.

For example, if you have 3-months of Xbox Live Gold and 3-months of Xbox Game Pass already in your account and join Ultimate as an Insider, you will be charged $1 for your first month. For subsequent months we will apply 6-months toward your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (up to a maximum of 36-months).

You manage Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from the console in the same way as any other subscriptions, and once you've enrolled in the testing program you'll see immediately when your next payment of $1/£1 will be taken.

You don't need to cancel your current Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass subscriptions either, these are automatically terminated once you join Ultimate.

You can also cancel Ultimate at any time during the testing phase.

In the meantime, those not enrolled in the Xbox Insider Program can purchase standard Xbox Game Pass today.